A Wisconsin man may have walked into a situation he didn’t quite understand, and the lesson he learned in Kaua’i’s North Shore area was a hard one. Glen Carlson, who recently moved to Kaua`i, was camping without a permit near
A Wisconsin man may have walked into a situation he didn’t quite understand,
and the lesson he learned in Kaua’i’s North Shore area was a hard one.
Glen
Carlson, who recently moved to Kaua`i, was camping without a permit near
Kalalau Beach on Nov. 5. The recent University of Wisconsin graduate claimed he
was doing botanical research in the area of his illegal campsite.
He’d
already been camped in the area for five days when he was sighted by men he
called “state park rangers” (state Department of Land and Natural Resources
officers from the agency’s Division of Conservation and Resource
Enforcement).
The officers, who Carlson described as wearing badges,
camouflage pants and carrying nightsticks and service revolvers, came to his
campsite and gave him a $150 ticket for camping without a permit.
They
returned to his campsite about an hour later and told him again to leave, he
said, but he decided to wait until morning.
If Carlson stopped his story
right here, there would be no disagreement about what happened next. But he
didn’t.
That night, he claimed, he saw a fire on the beach that wasn’t a
campfire. He said his tent and the tents of other campers without permits were
being burned by the DLNR officers.
Carlson said he lost his camera,
research logs, maps, guide books, clothes, passport and a $500 tax-refund
check. Carlson said he also lost his gas stove.
He watched the alleged
law-enforcement bonfire from the bushes, he said.
In addition to his
personal losses, Carlson said the beach environment was damaged.
“I pulled
out broken glass and knife blades” from the ashes, Carlson claimed. “I don’t
know what law says they can take my stuff. But I’m particularly upset how they
created such a disgusting mess by burning everything.”
Carlson, who moved
to the Kaua`i International Hostel Nov. 11, reported other campers said his
treatment was “a common problem.”
Manual Andrade, Kaua`i branch enforcement
chief for DLNR, disputed almost everything Carlson claimed, except the fact
that many campers were cited for being in the area without a permit.
“Four
officers arrived in the area at 6 a.m. Nov. 5. They made checks in portions of
the upper (Kalalau) valley and issued 16 citations. They also discovered a lot
of abandoned campsites,” Andrade said.
According to Andrade, when his
quartet of officers returned to the beach, they opened a storage shed that
belonged to DLNR and discovered that most of the state-owned bedding and
equipment had been contaminated with rat droppings and rat urine.
Andrade
explained that officers hadn’t been inside the shed for months. He said
officers bagged the contaminated state property and burned it on the beach to
forestall possible disease.
Bottles and cans collected by the officers were
bagged and helicoptered out, he said.
Cameras play a part in the divergent
stories, too.
Carlson claims to have photographs of the fire’s aftermath.
And Andrade said his men photographed all the cited illegal campers’ campsites
and property.
“They did not burn anything that belonged to anybody else,”
Andrade said.
Carlson said he intends to pay his $150 fine.
Scott
Ferguson, a North Shore resident who has donated free time for years helping to
keep the Kalalau Beach area clean, said he would understand almost any actions
taken by DLNR officers this year.
“The last couple of years it’s just
gotten worse and worse. Those squatters and illegal campers are trashing the
place. You gotta have enforcement. They clean out one group and another moves
in. These guys aren’t like the old outlaws. They are urban street people with
their tattoos and piercings,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said some of the
squatters dug up an ancient home site and planted tobacco.When confronted, he
said they claimed tobacco was a sacred herb for Indians.
“These are
Hawaiians, not Native Americans. They don’t even know that,” he said
disgustedly.
Andrade said lack of manpower is a major part of the area’s
problem.
“Access into that valley is basically open. There are signs posted
at the trailhead” prohibiting illegal camping, he said. “We try to get in there
as much as possible. We definitely could use more guys. I’ve got 14 officers
and I could use another 14.”
The officers are responsible for patrolling
all of Kaua`i, including the entire coastline.
Staff writer Dennis
Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and [
HREF=”mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net”>dwilken@pulitzer.net]
